Collection Date: 04/09/2026

Context:

During an in- class activity, my informant showed me how to fold a standard piece of paper into a football that he used to play small desk games with friends as a child. He said said that he learned this in elementary or early middle school and often created these footballs while bored in class. It was a fun way to stay busy and play with friends when class allowed it.

Text:

My informant repeatedly folded a standard 8×10 piece of printer paper, ensuring tight, straight folds with no unnecessary creases. The shape is formed by folding triangles into one another, making the final product dense and sturdy. My informant used an older YouTube video for assistance to remind him of some of the steps. He demonstrated the folding process and explained key details, such as the aforementioned tight folds, minimal creases, and common mistakes people make when folding them.

The final result is the Paper football pictured above, which can be used to play a fun game with a friend. Each takes a turn: one holds their fingers in the shape of a goalpost, the other positions the football in a punting position by holding the top corner and pushing down so it stands vertically. The “kicker” then flicks the football, propelling it forward into the goal. The player who gets five goals first wins.

Analysis:

It is interesting that he called it a football. I had never heard it called a paper football before, but when he showed me the process, I immediately knew what he was talking about, which I called a “paper triangle.” It’s funny, because I also learned how to make those from friends back in elementary school. These kinds of foldables often appear when we’re supposed to be learning, paying attention, or otherwise doing something else. Due to their location, students had to be somewhat sneaky when creating or playing with them, keeping them hidden from the teachers.

It is also a perfect representation of school children’s folk art. It is an item made informally from mass-produced materials, that’s taught from student to student, or unofficially online, and holds no monetary value. However, it does hold sentimental and nostalgic memories for the children and communities who grew up with these.

It is also interesting how he used some assistance from a random YouTube video. This reminds us that folklore continues to thrive online. There wasn’t one specific “right” video. Although the end product is roughly the same, each creator has a slightly different way of folding the paper or presenting the instructions, giving the process variety. Even though the digital tutorial exists, he still showed me in person how to make it, and the details (described earlier) he added were quite interesting and different than what the video did or could have mentioned.